16 September 2017

Every week I speak with several people who have entered a process of transformation. Usually their energy has accelerated and their bodies are moving or vibrating in ways that startle, surprise or frighten them, because the energetic aspects of a spiritual awakening are not discussed or explored in most spiritual traditions. And yet, we are all facets of consciousness living within biological and molecular structures. It is natural for any significant changes in how we view our self and the world to have an impact on our energy systems, as well as the way in which our consciousness operates. As our vehicle changes, consciousness gains new ways of expression through us. Awakening brings changes in every aspect of our lives and even the functioning of our brain. Meditation slowly reconstructs us, as does energy work, long-term yoga or Qigong practice, and even serious physical or emtoional trauma.
The fact is every cell of our body is always dying and rebirthing itself as you know from the fact your body is not the same today as it was at age 1 or 10 or 20 or 40. These changes evolve slowly so we do not notice them day to day, but it is certainly clear after a few years that we no longer look the same, that our consciousness lives inside a continual state of change. In fact I have heard it said that we as humans are more like active verbs than nouns, being in continual movement. The seeking of self-realization is the seeking of that within us that never changes, while all else is in motion.
When we have longed for Truth or God or simply to know who we are, it initiates a subtle change in our direction in life, and we adapt practices we hope will offer us new revelations, outside of our traditional cultural patterns. We may imagine a change that is beautiful and expansive and that will make us a happier person than we are when we begin. What we don’t often realize is that while these new possibilities arise, they do so because old patterns are being dissolved, previous belief structures are being torn apart, and conditioned experiences that block our capacity for freedom are being exposed, so that we can see them clearly and realize they are not the Truth of who we are. Awakening is either preceded by or followed by a necessary demolition project, just as a house may be rebuilt from the ground up.
What makes this most challenging is we don’t get to see the plan before hand, or have any control over the pace and style in which it will be rebuilt. It takes a great trust in the infinite, and the goodness of the universe. I suppose this is why many people get a glimpse of the radiant love or beauty or peace of Oneness first, and then feel they have lost it when the demolition project begins. We have to trust in this glimpse, that it was valid and real, and learn to navigate the process it initiates.
My websites and current books “The Kundalini Guide and “The Awakening Guide” on amazon are designed as supports for this journey and my new book “When Spirit Leaps: Navigating the Process of Spiritual Awakening” is moving toward publication next June by New Harbinger Press. It has excerpts from many stories of the ups and downs you may experience as you awaken. It has been the unexpected direction of my life to meet many who are in this process and be part of a movement toward changing consciousness that all of us are living in. While the World has many challenges today (and when has it not?) there is a subculture seeking Truth and love and understanding of how to be more complete in our human expression of this sacred opportunity for life that we share. I see our consciousness as wanting to help us grow into a true understanding of our relationship to one another. Awakening is not about dissolution into transcendent ethers and leaving our world. It is about bringing light to one another and evolving ourselves so that we are free of the many conditions that block our natural capacity to express human kindness, wisdom and freedom.
I encourage you to join me at the 2017 Science and Nonduality Conference Oct 19 to 22 in San Jose, CA along with multiple other speakers familiar with awakening. It is a place to find your tribe, and understand the process you are part of if you are awakening or longing to awaken. You can learn more about this gathering at www.scienceandnonduality.org.

01 March 2017

In awakening there is a moment of falling into the Center when all the veils are dropped, the mind stops, awareness is simply aware of Being as itself, and it feels as if there are no boundaries – no boundary of my body, my thoughts, my emotions, my separateness. It is like there is no me or my – no one -- only this. It can happen like a flash or it can last a few minutes, hours or days.

This is not the end of your spiritual evolution however, although it can mean the end of searching. If you are someone who has had a drive for years to know god or truth or just to feel free -- this moment changes that, because you have a sense there is no one here that needs to know or be free or have any other experience. There was always just this.

MORE THAN KNOWING WHO WE ARE

But enlightenment, and clearly enlightened living, is not simply knowing who you are, knowing yourself as radiant vastness or freedom or love or whatever else unfolds after awakening. It is an unfolding process that impacts the mind, the emotions, and the energy field. It is the release of any sense of division – having no sense of longing for an altered state and no belief in a problem with the world. It is discovering an irrational part of yourself where everything is ok, and happiness rests, even when things are not going well in the external activities of life. For most people this equanimity does not come automatically after awakening but takes some years to evolve, and during that time there is a periodic reappearance of old patterns, and a gradual clearing away of the conditioning, beliefs, emotions and attachments that they carried in their life.

MOST TRADITIONS PREPARE

In many spiritual traditions students work deliberately to prepare for these changes with practices that teach balancing and harmonizing energy, monitoring the diet, controlling the stimulations, developing compassion, teaching detachment, opening the heart and doing many other practices. But for most westerners these kinds of practices have been random if at all, and for someone who has a spontaneous awakening they may never have even heard of awakening before it happens to them. So they can feel some confusion and upheaval when they return to their lives.
It’s rather like the movie “Truman” where people live in a perfectly controlled bubble without knowing it and then when he breaks out it is a whole different world. Our relative world does not change but our perception of how it works changes. We see a much larger picture. Nothing exists quite the way it seems.
So there are many adjustments that follow an awakening process.
If a lamp had awareness it might believe it is dependent on a person who turns it on for its light, and be content with that. But suddenly now it realizes there is electricity running through it and that it is connected to a source with a universal power. It might feel different about itself and where its light comes from.

THINK OF YOURSELF AS AN ENERGY GRID

You are wired from birth to fit into your family, culture, religion, etc. Every experience you have had is somehow wired into your system
Kundalini activation is the clearing of all the old patterns and the rewiring and opening of your energy field to a new way of experiencing. The early yogis and the Chinese Taoists and probably other primitive cultures discovered energy could be worked with directly to bring someone into altered states of consciousness and cause changes in the body/mind system.

Energy is the creative life-forming aspect of consciousness. So if your consciousness changes your energy will also. And this is why people often report involuntary movements, interior sensations, vibrations, inner sounds, heat rising and other strange experiences if they are doing energy or spiritual practices.

THE WAY THE MIND WORKS CHANGES

The way the mind works changes as well. This is why there can be periods of cloudiness, or sharp shifts in the senses and perceptions, and the falling away of old habits and interests and even a sense of emptiness after an awakening, because the old patterns no longer dominate you. Eventually the self-judgment and criticisms of self and others dissolve – what Freud called the superego – that little voice that is always on your case.

Emotional Patterns change as the energy changes. But first, they arise – and you can have mood swings, even getting caught in emotions that you find no reason for, as if they are belonging to another life, or the universal field. In time emotional reactivity ends, although there can still be deep feeling and compassion. It just passes through, rather than sticking. It is the impersonal and unconditional love and compassion of a greater source that can move through you as the energy of awakening moves through the heart once the armoring has fallen away.

THE FORMLESS AND THE FORM

There is a formless aspect to awakening – you move into a sense of vastness and pure presence at times, and feel you are not identified with yourself in the way you were in the past. And there is a return into form, which leads to an authentic expression of the uniqueness you are. You discover this and move into it, rather than deciding it the way you might have in the past. Forms – these bodies – go through specific transformations in this process in order to support your ability to access deeper qualities of presence and peace, and for your mind to grow in clear perception.

Our forms are made of the energies of consciousness. We as molecular structures are primarily energy and space. Enlightenment, in my perspective, is the capacity to feel free as both and to live as an authentic expression of our deepest Truth.

About Me

For over 30 years I have mentored and consulted with people in the process of kundalini awakening or spiritual emergence. I wrote "Energies of Transformation: A Guide to the Kundalini Process" in 1990 and recently published "The Kundalini Guide" and "The Awakening Guide" for people who need support and understanding as they move into spiritual awakening.

I was a founder of the Kundalini Research Network and currently I own Shanti River Center in Ashland, Oregon.